Celebrities Help Fundraising Campaigns Sparkle

Submitted by Anonymous on 23 January 2009 - 3:29pm

We all know that, when it comes to raising the profile for a fundraising event or campaign, there are few things that tend to draw so much notice as attaching a well-known celebrity name to your charities name. Well, they don’t get much bigger than Colin Farrell or Roger Moore.

Both have been featured in prominent fundraising drives launched by Irish charities in recent days. Roger “raise an eyebrow” Moore, of James Bond fame, was in Dublin recently for a slew of public appearances, the most noticeable of which was his presence at the UNICEF Ireland Gala Ball on 16 January at the Burlington Hotel.

Sir Roger – renowned for his long-standing dedication to charitable causes and for his work as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador – also officially launched the new fundraising initiative between UNICEF and Topaz, in which Topaz customers will be invited to add 2 cent to their purchase in aid of UNICEF Ireland at 100 company owned Topaz sites around the country. It is all part of the UNICEF €1,000,000 fundraising drive for UNICEF Ireland.

Perhaps even more noticeably, Colin Farrell (fresh from his Golden Globe victory last week for his role in “In Bruges”), has continued to demonstrate his dedication to the Irish Special Olympics by fronting their new fundraising campaign. So Colin has not only been appearing in cinemas up and down the country but also on the side of buses and on walls in the form of posters featuring his profile. This should come as no surprise to anyone as Colin has been working as a Special Olympics Global Ambassador since 2003. Siobhan Grant, a director of the charity, has lauded Colin’s tireless championing of the cause, adding that, “his dedication is above and beyond the norm. He has given a huge amount of his time to this, and most of it when the cameras aren't around”.

And it’s not just the big-name A-listers who can be effective in kickstarting a fundraising campaign. Take, for example, the upcoming “Celebrity Jigs and Reels” event due to take place in Limerick in March. This fundraising event is being billed as a follow-up to the hugely popular “Limerick Sporting Celebrity X-Factor” night, which featured a number of well-known local celebrities. This series of events have been organised by local man, David Dineen, in aid of the Symptomatic Breast Cancer Care Unit in the Mid-West Regional Hospital.